Spotted: Bizarre SpaceX rocket-snatching machine that looks like it belongs on Robot Wars A robot has been spotted on the landing pad of SpaceX's floating barge Of course I still love you, and the rocket biz is refusing to say what it is for. Coming soon from SpaceX! Click to enlarge (Source: Stephen Marr, used with permission) This photo of the machine was taken by a couple flying over the Florida port where …
> 1. There are 4 pistons, which can only engage with the 4 landing legs on the Falcon 9 core.
I suspect they engage similar to the hold-down clamps used during a launch, holding the body, not the legs.
> 3. [...] but it's wheels (or treads) aren't visible. [...]
To the left and right of center there appears to be treads.
> Add it all up, and it seems the robot's purpose is to move freshly-landed cores.
My guess is that it's to stabilize the landed booster stage during transport, possibly using electromagnets to secure the robot to the deck.
I've loved everything I've read so far from Iain M Banks, but "The Use of Weapons" stands out above other others as an absolute materpiece, with one of the greatest twists ever written. It's one of the least sci-fi-ey of them, with less focus on the technology. If you love that side of Sci-Fi, maybe try "Matter" first.
I haven't read any of the Non-SF, but I've heard that "The Wasp Factory" is considered a modern classic.
Agree Use of Weapons best first "M" book.
The wasp factory, song of stone, whit, the crow road or the business are all good first choices for the none SF books. His last (the quarry) I thought was weak and insufficiently edited/revised; not surprising given his imminent death. The steep approach to Garbadale I think is poor compared to the others. I enjoyed canal dreams (actually that would be fine as a first one too albeit now dated) and espadair street (very Scottish; very 90s music-y).
I've not read dead air, complicity or stonemouth. And I'm sure there's a few I've missed.
(I read quite a lot)
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
